


The School Thing

by things_that_matter



Series: CMBYN: Life with Ollie [37]
Category: Call Me By Your Name (2017), Call Me By Your Name - All Media Types, Call Me by Your Name - André Aciman
Genre: Brothers, Comfort, Domestic Fluff, Family Drama, Family Feels, Family Fluff, Intimacy, Jealousy, M/M, School
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-10
Updated: 2021-02-10
Packaged: 2021-03-16 19:27:27
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,381
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29337528
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/things_that_matter/pseuds/things_that_matter
Summary: Oliver has to attend Ollie’s school thing. Elio just wants to know... what school thing?
Relationships: Oliver/Elio Perlman
Series: CMBYN: Life with Ollie [37]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2094873
Comments: 6
Kudos: 17





	The School Thing

“If you make me late again, I’m not going to be happy,” Elio complained. After nearly an entire school year, Elio and Oliver had finally developed a system that worked, for the most part. Oliver went to work very early, came home very early, and took care of Ollie until Elio could get home. In the mornings, it was up to Elio to get Ollie dressed, ready, fed, lunch packed, folder in backpack, and off to school on time. It was a fair division of labor, at least they both thought so. Just when they had their system running like a well-oiled machine, though, the incident with Danny happened. Elio and Oliver decided to keep Ollie off the bus for a while. They had time to take him to school and pick him up, so it was an easy decision. For some reason, though, Elio was having a difficult time getting out the door. Ollie seemed to drag his feet about things more than he had before, probably because he wasn’t happy about not being a bus rider. 

“I won’t make you late! Don’t worry!!” Ollie yelled happily from the kitchen where he was sneaking a few last minute extra cookies into his lunchbox. He’d figured out it was much easier to sneak a few rather than asking for a few. No one can tell you no when you’re sneaking. 

“We are already late, Ollie!” Elio growled from his spot by the front door. 

“Ahhhhh!” Ollie screamed as he ran past Elio and out the front door. 

Elio stepped out onto the porch, laughing, and called him back. “You know you’re not leaving without your shoes,” he said. 

Ollie giggled and ran back for his shoes, which Elio convinced him to put on in the car. As Elio watched Ollie run for the school building, only four minutes tardy thank you very much, he was startled out of his thoughts by his phone vibrating in his pocket. 

Glancing down, he saw that it was Oliver. Elio knew exactly what he wanted before he even answered the phone. 

“Hello?” Elio answered the phone in a friendly enough manner.

“Was Ollie at school on time?” Oliver asked immediately. 

Elio sighed. He honestly didn’t understand why Oliver was so concerned about it. It didn’t affect him. If Ollie made them late, Elio was late to his own classes. It didn’t make Oliver late or affect him in any way that Elio could think of. But, like everything else with Oliver, Elio knew he meant well, no matter what else. So he simply smiled and answered, “Yes, barely!” 

They both chuckled mildly. Then Oliver said something that surprised Elio, “So, how would you feel about me checking Ollie out after the thing today?” 

Elio didn’t know what this “thing” was that Oliver was referring to. Furthermore, Elio hated to ask, because that would mean admitting he didn’t know what Oliver was talking about. Sometimes Elio got tired of feeling like the irresponsible one. “Uh, sure, it’s fine with me,” Elio answered. 

“Are you sure? I don’t have to. I just know he’ll ask so I wanted to have an answer for him,” Oliver continued.

  
“Sure. It’s totally fine with me,” Elio insisted. 

The line was quiet for an awkward moment before Oliver said, “Are you okay, Elio?” It hadn’t occurred to him that Elio might be upset that Oliver was going to the thing at school today instead of him. Now he wondered if he should have talked to Elio about it before agreeing. Or maybe he just should have told Ollie to take Elio. But, he hadn’t thought to do either of those things. He’d readily, happily agreed to go.

“Yeah, totally okay,” Elio said, but he sounded to Oliver as if he were a thousand miles away. 

As soon as he got off the phone with Oliver, he dialed Ollie’s school. 

“Yes, This is Elio Perlman, Ollie Perlman’s brother…. Yes… Everything is fine… I was just wondering what time the thing is today?” Elio asked. “1:30, right, that’s what I thought. I just wanted to confirm it....And if you don’t mind, what exactly is the thing today about?” Elio inquired, feeling stupid for not knowing. He was “that” person that everyone in the office would roll their eyes about as soon as the call ended. “Oh, of course. Career Day. I thought so. I just wanted to make sure I had everything ready. Thanks again, goodbye.” Elio hung up abruptly. 

He took a few deep breaths. “This is totally okay,” Elio said aloud to himself as he drove to the university for his graduate classes. In fact, he spoke to himself in short bursts for the duration of the commute.

“It makes perfect sense that he’d invite Oliver.” 

“Oliver has a career, and I’m just a student.”

“And a piano teacher. So Oliver’s a teacher and I’m a teacher, but if he wanted to invite Oliver that’s okay… perfectly okay.” 

“I played with the Boston Symphony Orchestra last month. That’s pretty awesome, but I guess Ollie doesn’t think so.” 

“That was a one time opportunity more than a career per se.” 

Throughout the day as Elio tried to pay attention during his classes, he fought with himself. He was, he hated to admit, jealous that Ollie hadn’t even thought about inviting him to Career Day. He wished that he had at least been a consideration. He would have told Ollie to take Oliver instead. Elio hated things like this. But, as 1:30 approached, Elio began to succumb to his negative feelings. He visualized Oliver sitting in Ollie’s class with him, meeting all of Ollie’s classmates. Then Elio visualized Oliver giving his super engaging presentation throughout which the teacher, all of the students, and any other parents who happened to be there, would all be oooohing and aaaaahhhing. Elio could almost hear the standing ovation Oliver would receive. Finally, Elio was so blue that he called his piano students and rescheduled their lessons, then he skipped his last class of the day, and went home. He had a headache by this time, anyway, so he didn’t feel guilty. When he got home he found Olive the puppy and made her take a nap with him. Nothing on earth was quite as comforting as a puppy when one was sad, Elio thought as he drifted to sleep. 

Elio was awakened an hour later by the sounds of an upset Ollie and a put out Oliver coming through the door. Ollie was whining, but Elio couldn’t hear his actual words. He could hear Oliver’s clearly enough though. 

“Ollie, I told you to stop whining,” Oliver sounded impatient. Elio could have gotten up, he knew he probably _should_ get up to help, but he didn’t. He laid with his eyes closed, ears opened, trying to figure out what had happened.

Ollie honored Oliver’s request. He stopped whining, and began crying instead. 

Oliver was clever though. He said, “Your brother’s car is home. Why don’t you go find him and find out why he came home early?” 

Ollie stopped crying then, all at once. “Elio’s here?” he sniffled. 

Oliver nodded. “He should be. His car is here.”

“ELIO!!!!” Ollie yelled, running down the hallway. 

Elio was still pretending to be asleep, but Ollie had never been one to be overly concerned about his brother’s state of consciousness. He jumped right up onto the bed and actually started jumping on the bed. This was something Elio didn’t let him do. His overprotective big brother radar couldn’t tolerate bed jumping or any other such dangerous endeavor. “ELIO ELIO ELIO ELIO!!!” Ollie chanted as he jumped. 

Giving up on pretending to sleep, Elio suddenly reached up and grabbed Ollie, startling him and making him scream. Ollie crashed himself into a lying position right next to Elio. Ollie was panting and out of breath from the jumping and laughing he’d been doing. 

When Ollie tried to get up, Elio laid across him. “Where do you think you’re going, huh?” Elio teased, having Ollie completely pinned down. 

Ollie began to struggle, at first playfully but then urgently. “Elio get OFF!!!” Ollie yelled. The two brothers wrestled a bit more, Elio thought playfully, but Ollie had grown annoyed with being held down. Ollie opened his mouth wide and went to bite Elio’s arm, which was the closest thing to Ollie’s mouth. Thankfully, Elio saw Ollie’s intention in time to move his arm. He got off Ollie then and sat up. 

“What the hell, Ollie? You were going to bite me?” Elio complained. 

Ollie was frowning now, moreso because Elio was upset with him than because he’d been holding him down. “Sorry,” Ollie apologized. 

“Whatever,” Elio replied under his breath. The two just sat side by side, both out of breath. Both angry. Both confused about what had just happened. They were happy to see each other, and then suddenly they weren’t, and neither of them understood why. 

Ollie started to whine again, “I said I’m sorry.” 

“Just go away,” Elio said. He heard the meanness in his voice, and he didn’t know where it was coming from. Ollie started to cry then, and Elio couldn’t be surprised by that. Ollie always cried when Elio was mad at him. Ollie could tolerate Oliver being upset with him, in very small doses, but he couldn’t handle even a morsel of Elio’s anger. 

“Go away, Ollie,” Elio said again. He watched his little brother slide down from the bed and walk out of the room. He sighed. Why was he mad? Why was he being mean to Ollie? 

Elio could hear Oliver getting onto Ollie for whining again, and he felt guilty. He had made Ollie upset and now Ollie was getting in trouble for being upset. Still he didn’t get up, though. He simply sat, briefly wondering whether he could fall asleep again. He didn't want to be around Ollie, or even Oliver, and that’s when he started to realize why he was behaving so badly. 

The bedroom door opened, and Oliver walked over and laid on the bed. Elio was still sitting up, but Oliver pulled him, causing him to slide down and lay next to him. 

“You sick?” Oliver asked.

“No,” Elio answered. He was pouting and he didn’t want to be. He didn’t want Oliver or Ollie to know how jealous he was, nor how petty, nor how mean he’d been to a seven year old who couldn’t possibly understand why. 

“What’s wrong?” Oliver asked. 

“Nothing,” Elio answered. 

Oliver rolled over onto his back with a huge sigh. For a silent moment, he just stared up at the ceiling. 

“What’s wrong?” Elio asked this time.

“Everything,” Oliver said. 

Elio rolled his eyes. He was the one whose feelings were hurt. He was the one who got left out of the school thing. He was the one who had been so upset he couldn’t even finish his classes. But now Oliver was apparently going to make it about him. 

“Everything?” Elio scoffed. “Everything is wrong?? With you?” 

“Yes,” Oliver answered, still staring at the ceiling. 

“Do tell,” Elio finally said. Obviously Oliver wanted to get something off his chest. 

“Ollie hates me, for starters. You’re obviously upset with me, and you’re taking it out on Ollie,” Oliver muttered. 

“Whatever,” Elio grumbled. 

“Whatever,” Oliver grumbled. This made Elio laugh despite himself. Oliver wasn’t really a “whatever,” type of person. He was a bit more direct. Or “mature” as Oliver preferred to call it. 

Oliver looked over at Elio, relieved to see a smile. 

“So why does Ollie supposedly hate you?” Elio asked. 

Oliver looked back up at the ceiling. “I embarrassed him at school.” 

Elio turned onto his side, facing Oliver, who Elio could now see actually was upset. “What happened?” Elio asked. He hoped Oliver didn’t really embarrass Ollie. 

“Well when I got up to speak about my career, everyone kept asking me medical questions,” Oliver began. “Like ‘can you catch a cold by going outside with your hair wet in the winter’ and other ridiculous questions like that.” 

Elio looked puzzled. “But why?” 

“That’s what I wanted to know, but eventually it dawned on me that everyone kept calling me doctor,” Oliver explained. 

The light started to dawn for Elio, too. “Oh no,” he groaned. 

“Yeah,” Oliver muttered. “So I got a little frazzled and I guess I took it out on Ollie.” 

“How?” Elio asked. He felt terrible now. He’d been so grouchy toward Ollie for inviting Oliver instead of him. Little did he know, Oliver had also been grouchy toward him. Elio thought, not for the first time, how hard it must be at times to be a kid. You have to put up with grown ups and their various moods, but then you weren’t supposed to experience any moods yourself. 

“I just said in front of the entire class, ‘Did you tell them I was a medical doctor?’” Oliver explained. 

“Did you say it harshly?” Elio was upset. 

Oliver sighed, “I think a little.”

“Oliver! Did you apologize?” 

“Of course. It wasn’t even Ollie’s fault. His teacher sent that form home asking about our careers and I clearly stated I’m a PhD, not a medical doctor. But, apparently she didn’t read it carefully,” Oliver sighed again. Elio rolled into him, then wrapped his arms around him in a comforting gesture. Oliver continued as if he’d suddenly remembered something important, “Oh, and his teacher also wanted to know why you didn’t fill in your form and return it? Everyone would have loved to hear about the pianist but since you didn’t return the form, she thought you weren’t interested.”

“Form?” Elio asked. 

Oliver shook his head, then rolled over on top of Elio playfully. “Am I going to have to start checking your homework, too?” He asked. 

Elio felt himself blushing. “I thought Ollie just didn’t want me there.”

Oliver kissed him. “I guess I’m not the only one who owes the shortest family member an apology,” he smiled. 

From the doorway they could hear Ollie, who was holding his puppy. “Why do you need to apologize to Olive? Are you being mean to her?” 

“Don’t you knock?” Elio laughed as Oliver rolled off of him, also laughing. 

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  



End file.
